Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Choices...

Last week on my way home from work, I dialed my mom's number in hopes of hearing her voice. I think she knew the minute she heard mine that I was exhausted and had so much on my plate. The duties of work, the emotions of Mother's Day, and getting ready for my hubby to go out of town for a week hit me all at once... Yuck! During our conversation, I started talking about choices and sometimes, the option we choose is to not make a choice at all and ultimately wait for the end result. A few days later, this arrived in my inbox....~Janelle

MAKING CHOICES
Hit the snooze button or hit the floor? Oatmeal or Cheerios? Will it be slacks or capris today? Decision-making starts as soon as your eyes open every morning. But most of those moment-by-moment decisions aren't going to create a blip on the radar of life or have any lasting impact.

The decisions that a pregnant teenager is called on to make are different. Those decisions will matter--for a lifetime. Two lives hang in the balance, and many others will be affected. Choosing life for that baby is the first and most precious decision. I suppose it could happen that carrying the baby to term is the end result of denying the need to make a decision—and if so, thank God for allowing the defense mechanism of denial to have resulted in the choice of life!

But that's only the beginning of a series of choices that are weighty and potentially life-changing. And all of this is happening at a time when this young mom is in crisis-mode and her hormones and emotions are about as steady as a turn on the wildest amusement park ride. Imagine being in your mid-teens and being faced with a decision that you're told will set the course for your life and the life of the baby you're carrying—and it's a decision that carries a deadline and is binding. Before this the biggest decisions you had to make were about the cut of your jeans and the classes for next school year.

Maybe it would be just as easy to slip back into denial and let this decision make itself. Oh, but in this case, making the choice not to make a choice will have lasting consequences for those same two lives—and the lives of others. Defaulting on this decision could lead to a lifetime of regret. Better to be proactive and on task with this one. Better—but not easy.

Pray for those young moms faced with making a decision that requires them to reason beyond their scope of experience. Pray for those family members and friends who are struggling to understand and respect the birth-mother's choice. Pray for those counselors who are giving guidance so that each girl will become empowered to make the best decision she can—not a perfect one, as that is not an option, but the best one available to her.

I value the wisdom of the staff in the trenches with those birth-mothers. Their experience and knowledge is encouraging to birth-moms and families floundering in a sea of fear and angst. But experience and knowledge alone won't carry the day. It is in their being so saturated with God's truth that the same Spirit that endows Christ with discernment can minister in and through them. Isaiah prophesied that Christ would be filled with “The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” (Isaiah 11:2-3).

I pray that every time one of this tough parenting-versus-placement decisions needs to be made, God's Spirit will be working through caseworkers and clients alike to provide supernatural decision-making power!

Birth Grandmother......Gloria

My Mom with my sister, Lisa
Two ladies who have been forever changed by my choices...